[Vision2020] Legislative Update 9

[Rep. Tom Trail]

LEGISLATIVE NEWSLETTER
9 -- MARCH 14-18/2011

 



 

Constituents:

 



 

     It has been a
busy week in Boise.  Here are
some of the highlights. 
Predictions are that we should finish business by April
1st.

 

1.  Thought for the Day -- Why is it
that so many people are uptight about labor unions, collective bargaining,
and union members earning $50,000/year when no one seems concerned about
the robber barons and bankers on Wall Street and CEO getting $5 million
bonuses?  Not one banker on
Wall Street has been indicted over the economic scandals that took place
there the past several years. 
To find out the full story I recommend the book, “13
Bankers”.

 

2.   HB222 -- HB222 which passed
the House and now moves on to the Senate would strip colleges and
universities of the current right to ban firearms on their campuses except
in undergraduate dorms.  The
bill would not include private colleges.  The bill would allow guns to be carried into sports
venues and arenas on campuses plus for those attending tail gate
parties.  The State Board of
Education and Presidents of all State Universities opposed the bill.  There was concern that this new
policy would eliminate many outside events from coming on campus.  The sponsors of the bill claim
that the Idaho Constitution is very clear on the subject:  "The people have the right to
bear arms, which right shall not be abridged."  Supporters argue that the right is
held by the state only and not the universities that currently make
policy. Fifteen Republicans voted against the bill including a member of
leadership.

 

      A
thoughtful letter to the editor on the subject of guns on college campuses
was recently published in the New York Times.  The writers are professors at Columbia University
College of Physicians and Surgeons and Co-editors of "Mental Health
Care in the College Community. 
While there have been a few highly publicized tragic shooting on
college campuses in recent years, over the last 10 years the average rate
of homicide on college campuses has been approximately 1 per 1 million
students.  Colleges are
extraordinarily safe places. 
In contrast, suicide is 100 times as common--and suicide attempts
10,000 times as common--as homicides on campus.  We know that suicide attempts involving firearms are
dramatically more likely to result in death to the attempter and
potentially other than those made by other means, like drug
overdoses.   Finally, 40
percent of college students report bingeing on alcohol in any two week
period, a behavior associated with both suicide and homicide risk.  Advocates of arming more college
students are therefore trying to protect against an extremely rare event
while potentially putting guns into hands of large numbers of depressed,
suicidal or intoxicated students who will be at increased risk, and put
others at risk too." 
Former Speaker of the House, Bruce Newcomb, came out strongly
against the bill.

 

3.  HCR25 -- A plan to delay expansion
of Idaho's grocery tax credit for one year to help balance the state
budget cleared the Idaho House. 
After a legislative compromise in 2008, the grocery tax credit was
due to rise annually in $10 increments. The break for the lowest income
residents is now $70 and most others $50.  I joined six other Republicans in opposing the
legislation viewing this as a tax increase for the very poorest of our
citizens.

 

4.  SB1184 -- This is the rewrite of
SB1113.  The new bill gives
districts more flexibility with reduced funding either through employing
fewer teachers, increasing class sizes, reducing salaries or shifting
funding.   Districts will
have to use a combination of factors to deal with the lower funding
amount.  Senator Bart Davis,
Senate Majority Leader, said that the impact of the bill is basically
allocating funds to technology which will take away from employing
teachers in the classroom.  It
also, in a sense, will directly put the blame for teachers laid off on the
districts instead of the SPI and the Legislature as one public school
administrator put it.  The new
bill:
 1) allows
districts flexibility to spend decreased funding in more ways, giving them
more leeway each year for three years, 

 2) provides high school teachers
with mobile computing devices first in the 2012 school year, and then
begin expanding the devices to all students by 2015, 

 3) provides $10 million a year for
instructional technology in Idaho's classrooms as well as $3 million for
professional development of teachers, 

 4) raises the minimum salary for
new teachers to $30,000  (one
should    note that
the minimum salary for new teachers was $30,000 four years ago), 

 5) creates a task force for
implementing of mobile devices and on line courses, 

 6) provides for a provision that
registration for online courses is done through the district's normal
registration process, 

and 

 7) requires that each school post
its budget in a fiscal report card. The bill will be introduced in the
Senate Ed Committee on Tuesday.

 



 

5. HB260 -- Medicaid
Cuts of $35 million are expected to be saved. The bill passed the House
and is on the way to the Senate. Frankly, I think that the cuts were too
extreme and will leave many Idaho citizens to face bleak medical futures
without the coverage, and as one legislator predicted, over 1,000 health
providers will lose jobs if the cuts go through. Do we need another 1,000
Idaho citizens on the unemployment rolls?

 



 

6. Study indicates
that the U.S. must raise teachers' status -- The basic essence is that
countries whose students score highest recruit top college graduates as
teachers and pay more. The study indicates that countries like South
Korea, Singapore and Finland recruit only high performing college
graduates for teaching positions, support them with mentoring and other
help in the classroom, pay them accordingly, and take steps to raise
respect for the profession. The report also indicated "Teaching in
the U.S. is unfortunately no longer a high status occupation," said
Dr. Schleicher in his report. 
He noted that "Despite the characterization that teaching is
an easy job with short hours and summers off the fact is that successful,
dedicated teachers in the U.S. work long hours for little pay and, in many
cases, insufficient support from their leadership."

 

    President Obama noted
that "In South Korea, teachers are known as 'nation builders",
and I think it's time that we treated our teachers with the same level of
respect." The report concludes that "five things U.S. education
reformers could learn" from the high performing countries, the report
says, includes adopting common academic standards, developing better tests
for use by teacher in diagnosing students' day to day learning  needs and training more effective
school leaders. It was also of interest that a leading country like
Finland requires very little in terms of national testing. There is
certainly food for thought in this report.

 



 

I’ll finish with this link to story that should be
sent to all teachers and all legislators:
 
http://www.cleveland.com/schultz/index.ssf/2011/03/apology_to_a_cleveland_teacher.html
 


Well, that is all for
this week.  I'd like to
receive your comments and recommendations.   

My e mail is ttrail at house.idaho.gov

 


My phone (208)
332-1184.

 



 

Rep. Tom Trail

 



 

You can also view my
updates on www.infotrail.com/idaho

 

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